Dendra System's seed-spitting drones rebuild forests from the air

Andrew Tarantola

2020-10-26

Engadget

Keywords: drones, Dendra systems, forest restoration, Deforestation, AI, Machine learning, feature, tomorrow

The Earth is losing forests at an alarming rate. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that 420 million hectares of forest have been lost to agricultural use (largely cattle ranching, soya bean and oil palm farming) since 1990. Between 2015 and 2020, some 10 million hectares were destroyed each year. The Amazon rainforest, for example, lost an area the size of Yellowstone (3,769 square miles) in 2019, and saw deforestation rates spike 30 percent to their highest point in a decade. 

Forest covers across the world are decreasing and action needs to be taken to improve the cover that's the world environment's breathing lungs. Dendra's system is a drone-based forest restoration company working across the globe to restore forests using AI and technology-based solutions. The drones carry up to 50 different species of seeds and can plant several hundreds of hectares in a day. With the help of GIS data, they can monitor and track the progress of the forest restoration project. Hovering from about 2m above the ground, the speed of the drone drops about 150 seed pods per second into the ground depending on the soil type and conditions. In a concluding note, the author speaks of carbon sequestration and how technology can be developed to be used for trapping carbon.

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Tags: seed spitting, urban forests, loss of forest cover,